HISTORY:

LABOUR DAY BEGAN IN CANADA:

While anarchists, like most of the world, consider May Day, May 1, as the actual real Labour Day the first Monday in September is the officially delegated one in Canada and the USA. This Labour Day grew out of labour struggles in Ontario during the 19th century. Here's the story as told in the pages of the Vancouver Sun.

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Labour Day originated in Canada:
When asked what Canada is famous for, most people would probably say the Maple Leaf or hockey, or perhaps in a more serious vein, our impressive history of human rights.
Not one in a hundred people, Canadian or otherwise, would likely mention Labour Day. But as it happens, the holiday that celebrates the contributions of workers around the world began right here.

It all started on April 15, 1872, when Canada was just five years old. Although the United Kingdom had repealed a law making membership in a union a criminal offence in 1871, the crime still existed in Canada in 1872, and 24 leaders of the Toronto Typographical Union, who had been striking for a 58-hour work week, had been imprisoned.

That led the Toronto Trades Assembly to call its 27 unions to attend a demonstration, and on April 15, 10,000 people turned out to hear speeches calling for the repeal of the law that made union membership illegal.

Buoyed by that success, on Sept. 3 members of seven Ottawa unions held a parade a mile long, led by the Garrison Artillery Band and flanked by city firefighters. The parade made its way to the home of then prime minister John A. Macdonald, picked up the PM -- literally -- and took him to Ottawa City Hall in a carriage by torchlight.

Ever the savvy politician, and evidently aware that it was best not to rile up a mile-long parade after dark, Macdonald promised that he would "sweep away all such barbarous laws from the statute books."

Macdonald and the Conservative government made good on his promise the following year.

But the trade unions had further work to do, so they continued to hold annual parades and demonstrations.

On July 22, 1882, the Toronto Trades and Labour Council decided to invite New Yorker Peter J. McGuire, the general secretary of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and co-founder of the American Federation of Labour, to speak at the demonstration.

McGuire was duly impressed by the event and, when he returned home, he proposed that the United States celebrate a day in honour of workers. Sure enough, the Americans celebrated their first unofficial Labour Day on Sept. 5, 1882, and McGuire became known as the "father of Labour Day."

Over the next decade, individual states enacted legislation designating the first Monday in September Labour Day, and on June 28, 1894, the U.S. Congress passed a federal law enshrining the holiday. Just four weeks later, the government of then prime minister John Thompson enacted a similar law, and now the first Monday in September is celebrated as Labour Day throughout North America.

So in little more than a century, workers have gone from fighting for 58-hour weeks to expecting the standard 35- or 40-hour week. Strangely, though, despite these advances, recent surveys suggest that people are working harder than ever, and have less free time. Many workers don't even take all of their allotted vacations, and they stay tied to their desks through the "advances" of technology.

The economic meltdown, which began just about a year ago, has only made workers' woes worse, as layoffs have made the overworked the objects of envy.

From this perspective, things can only go up, and, if recent economic prognostications are to be believed, it appears that they will in relatively short order.

That's certainly worth celebrating right now.

HISTORY/ANTI-FASCISM:

MORE TO REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER:

Molly has already published an article on anarchist and labour memorials of deaths in the month of November, a contrast to the official Remembrance day ceremonies in the Commonwealth. Here's another article about a recent commemoration of such a death that occurred on November 11, 2007 in the Spanish city of Madrid. From the UK Indymedia site....

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Mass Antifascist Demonstration in Madrid Remembering Carlos Palomino:
More than 2000 people demonstrated in Madrid on Tuesday 11th November in solidarity, remembrance and homage to Carlos Palomino, the antifa activist murdered exactly one year ago by a far right member of the Spanish army. The demonstration "Carlos, One Year Without You" marked the first anniversary of the 11th of November 2007, when Carlos Javier Palomino, a 16 year old active antifascist in the Madrid circles, died from the stab wounds caused by the fascist Josué Estébanez de la Hija.

A series of remembrance protests occurred throughout Spain, being Madrid where the biggest and most emotive one took place. As one of the banners in front of the demonstration read: "The best homage is to carry on with the struggle".

Video of the demo here which includes an emotive but combative speech by Carlos' mother (sp)Photo galleries one and two.Timeline of the demonstration (sp) here.

On that day, Carlos was on his way to an antifascist counter-demo to protest against a demonstration that had been called by the neo-nazi party Democracia Nacional (National Democracy) in the popular and very ethnically mixed Usera district of Madrid. In Legazpi tube station he encountered the professional soldier on leave whom quickly produced a knife and stabbed Carlos causing his death. His murder sparkled a series of protests around Europe, including a memorial in London's Jubilee Gardens organised by Antifa Britain and the Anarchist Federation.

This week's demonstration was the third large remembrance protest that has taken place in Madrid since Carlos' murder. Half a year ago, and following the call "Carlos Six Months Without You", hundreds took to the streets of Usera, the city's district where the fascists had tried to demonstrate the day Carlos was killed [Video and Photos] And the week that followed the murder one year ago, thousands took to the streets of Madrid despite heavy police repression [Video] and Barcelona [Video and Photos]

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STILL MORE TO REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER:

There's a discussion going on over at the Anarchist Black Cat discussion board about other events in November worthy of commemoration. Here's a few items that Molly has gleaned from that thread.

-New Zealand, November 12, 1912. Frederick George Evans of the NZ Miners' Union beaten to death by police.

-USA. November 11, 1831. Rebel slave leader Nat Turner hanged by the state of Virginia.

-USA. November 22, 1922. Mexican anarchist leader Ricardo Flores Magon dies under suspicious circumstances while imprisoned in Leavenworth Penitentiary, Kansas USA.

-USA. November 29, 1919. Company goons attack the union hall of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters in Bogalusa, Louisiana killing four organizers.

-USA. November 22, 1886. Between 30 and 100 striking black sugar workers were murdered in Thibodaux, Lousiana.

-Greece. November 14-17, 1973. Uprising against Greek military dictatorship begins in the Polytechnic School in Athens. many killed by the military during the course of the revolt. First public reappearance of the Greek anarchist movement after many decades.